The Maarif Institute, a leading campaigner of Islamic pluralism, has returned with its biennial awarding event and is now looking for inspiring figures dedicated to promoting social justice and humanity to receive the 2020 Maarif Award.

The award is specifically for local activists and community figures who are active at the grassroots level, whose work may have escaped media and public attention.

“The recipient of the Maarif Award will serve as a reminder for us about [the importance] of genuine works that contribute to human virtues. They are ordinary people with extraordinary work for humanity,” the institute said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.

In 2018, an 81-year-old pluralism advocate from Sikka regency in East Nusa Tenggara, Abdul Rosyid Wahab, was honored with the Maarif Award for his effort to preserve religious tolerance in his regency, which is a predominantly Christian region.

Members of the jury for the 2020 award include Maarif Institute advisory board member Clara Joewono, who is also the Center for Strategic and International Studies vice chair; Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) chairman Rev. Gomar Gultom; University of Indonesia (UI) Economic Studies Department professor Rhenald Khasali; and The Jakarta Post’s editor-in-chief and senior journalist Nezar Patria.

The award is named after the institute's founder, Ahmad Syafii Maarif, a prominent intellectual and former chairman of Muhammadiyah ─ the country’s second-largest Islamic organization. It acknowledges individuals and institutions who contribute to promoting tolerance, diversity and social justice. (dpk)